Conquered by the North: creative trips of the artist
V.A. Igoshev of the 1950s and 1960s

Galyamov Artur Amirovich Scientific Associate, Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Development 628001, Russia, Khmao-Yugra Autonomous Okrug, Khanty-Mansiysk, Mira str., 14A galyamov-artur@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The artist Vladimir Alexandrovich Igoshev later recalled that the beginning of the fateful creative trips to the North was due to the urgent need to search for new images, and the lack of "spiritual awe" in relation to the production theme – more "advanced" for those years (1950s). "Everything seemed to be going well <...> Wrote a series portraits of metallurgists and machine builders. I was even given a pass at Uralmash – I spent so much time in its workshops. But I felt that everything seemed to be not mine <...> And then I remembered the stories of my older sister about how, even before the war, she met the northern people coming there in Ivdel – Mansi. They had, she said, everything special – clothes, reindeer sleds, and dogs <...> I remembered my sister's words and decided to go to the remote taiga for new impressions" ^{[1, pp. 67-68]}.

Art historians Ya.Ya. Shapovalov ^{[2; 3]} and N.N. Golovanov ^{[4; 5]} wrote about the first creative trips of V.A. Igoshev to the North of the 1950s, reflecting in the form of a living narrative the artistic experiences of comprehension by the Soviet master of a previously unfamiliar culture and ethnos. Modern researchers such as L. Shiryaeva ^[6] and A.A. Belova ^[7] in their review articles only indirectly addressed the issue of the artist's early northern business trips, without referring, at the same time, to the previous works of the authors we have already mentioned. In one of our previous studies, based on a theoretical and methodological combination of approaches and oral reports from informants, we characterized the experience of V.A. Igoshev's creative business trips to Yugra ^[8]. However, even in this work, with all conceptual assumptions, historical facts and information related to specific dates of trips, as well as a list of paintings and graphic works, the circumstances of their creation and further exposure at major art exhibitions of the 1950s and 1960s were not touched upon.

The purpose of this study is to "reconstruct" the overall picture of the northern creative trips of the artist V.A. Igoshev in the 1950s and 1960s on the basis of paintings and graphic works of the early "northern cycle", archival materials, exhibition catalogues, Soviet periodicals, individual scientific articles and monographs, information from informants. The "starting point", at the same time, will be March 1954, and a kind of "intermediate result" associated with the Sverdlovsk period of the master's work – personal exhibitions in 1964, as well as the exhibition of the works of the "northern cycle" at the Second Republican exhibition "Soviet Russia" (February 6 – April 11, 1965).

The first creative trip of V.A. Igoshev to the northern villages of the Sverdlovsk region (Burmantovo, Suevatpul) in March 1954 is covered in sufficient detail in the works of Soviet art historians ^{[2; 3; 4; 5; 9]}, and also in the memoirs of the artist himself ^{[1; 10]}. When he found himself in Suevatpaul after meeting Stepan Kurikov, he seemed to feel that "he had entered another time dimension: maybe in the last century, maybe in the century before last." "Now you won't meet a mansi man with pigtails, and even with colorful ribbons woven into them, but I caught him. I have seen women in beautiful national clothes hiding their faces. They were open-minded, naive in some ways, the kindest people. I was interested in everything – how they graze deer, how they catch fish, how they hunt bears and squirrels" ^{[1, pp. 68-69]}.

The artist stayed in Suevatpaul for about a month. According to him, here, in addition to Stepan Kurikov and his wife Praskovya, he "painted other residents of this distant taiga camp, made a lot of drawings. I drew deer and sleds, dogs and trees, reindeer harnesses and chuvals – everything was unusually new and interesting for me" ^{[10, pp. 282-283]}. The first researcher of V.A. Igoshev's work, Ya.Ya. Shapovalov, noted that the young artist brought dozens of sketches, drawings and sketches from his first business trip ^{[3, p. 36]}. Among the graphic works that capture in all details the life of a once unfamiliar culture, views of northern nature, the appearance and "habits" of Mansi (portrait and genre scenes), one should name: "In the Mansi yurt", "Girl with a dog", "Mansi Woman", "Casting bullets", "Deer", "Deer at the sled", "Hunting dogs", "Lozva River", etc. ^{[9, p. 25]}. In the first paintings of the "northern cycle", he also sought to reflect the realities of life in the northern camp, the whole complex of observations, including individual "ethnographic" facts: "In the cradle", "Evening", "Evening on the Suevate", "Chuval", "Expeditionary convoy", "Tuchan", "Fog on the the Lozva River" and others ^{[9, pp. 17-18]}. The most artistically valuable were sketch portraits, from which two of the most expressive thematic lines in the creative legacy of V.A. Igoshev originate, which later received a philosophical sound – the theme of childhood ("The Girl Mansi", "The Young Driver", "Toycha") and old age ("Old Mansi with a bag", "Old Mansi with a muskrat skin", "Old Mansi"). It is worth adding that in February 1954, many of the listed works were shown to Sverdlovsk artists within the framework of the traditional "creative environment" even before their official exposure at zonal and republican exhibitions ^[11].

The stock of natural impressions accumulated during a month-long stay in Suevatpaul served as an inexhaustible source for the artist to create genre works. So, with the work "On Vacation" (1954), "written almost entirely from nature" ^{[9, p. 10]}, the first success came at the republican exhibition [see note 1]. The idea of the future story-themed picture "On a festive day" (the first title is "Eh, I'll pump") It also originated in Stepan Kurikov's yurt ^{[4, p. 20]}.

The artist returned to the North in the summer of 1954, where he stayed for almost two months, "visited the farthest camps, met many wonderful people who became the heroes of his works" ^{[2, p. 17]}. Probably, the original sketch "On summer pastures", dated, however, 1955, belongs to this time.

Graphic and pictorial works of 1954 were presented at the opening of the Sverdlovsk Art Exhibition (autumn 1954) [see note. 2], An exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR (November 18, 1954 – January 3, 1955) [see note. 3], and from January 20, 1955 – at the All-Union Art Exhibition [see note 4]. Diploma of the first degree of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, "the warm reviews of numerous viewers only confirmed the artist's already matured conviction that the life of the Mansi people is a great and noble theme of Soviet art, a theme that can become the main content of the work of the Soviet artist" ^{[3, p. 36]}.

"Inspired by the first successes" ^{[9, p. 10]} V.A. Igoshev in the early spring of 1955 made a long trip to the Khanty-Mansiysk National District of the Tyumen region, namely to the northern villages of Talia, Ust–Manya, Nyaksimvol. The artist spent two months in Nyaksimvol, where he was taken by plane ^{[2, p. 19]}. Here, according to art critic N.N. Golovanov, "the ideas of new works were born by themselves" ^{[4, p. 12]}. For example, the idea of a future genre painting "To my native camp" was connected with a real–life scene of a meeting of old acquaintances, which the artist personally observed, at that time completing work on another canvas - "Portrait of a collective farmer Mansi": "A girl Mansi came to visit the owners with whom I lived. She was returning to her native collective farm in Ust-Manya from Khanty-Mansiysk, where she studied at the school of livestock breeders. Her appearance caused great joy and excitement among those present, and I had a desire to paint a picture on this topic" ^{[3, p. 37]}. In the Anyamovs' house, where V.A. Igoshev was working on a sketch for the painting "From a successful Hunt", there was a meeting with V.P. Khatanzeev ^{[10, p. 296]} – the future hero of his portraits (1955 and 1958, respectively) and genre paintings ("In the club of a distant village", 1961-1964).

In addition to the works we have mentioned, it is necessary to list other works from 1955: "Evening at the camp", "On a long journey" (sketch), "Shepherds", "At the camp", "Winter", "Mansika with a girl", "Mansi Girl", "Hunter" (sketch), "Mother" (sketch), "The girl with the book", etc. Almost all of them participated in the Exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR in 1955 [see note. 5], as well as in a traveling exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR in such cities as Astrakhan, Makhachkala, Grozny, Nalchik, Stavropol, Pyatigorsk, etc. (June 21, 1955 – January 18, 1956) [see note 6]. Somewhat later, "Portrait of V.P. Khatanzeev" (1955) was exhibited at the Exhibition for the first All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists in 1957 [see note 7].

V.A. Igoshev devoted the whole of the following 1956 to the creation of a "capital thematic canvas" ^{[4, p. 16]} – "The Song of the Old Mansi". According to the artist, he "has long wanted to write something significant, I wanted to summarize my impressions in a large thematic canvas." ^{[4, p. 16]}. To fulfill this goal, throughout 1956 (spring, winter) he traveled to Nyaksimvol, Ust-Manya, Suevatpaul, to the most remote camps, collecting valuable material for a future painting. The artist visited a distant, "lonely, snow–covered yurt lost in the remote Ural taiga" on the Ovynye River, where Osip Tasmanov, who was already familiar to him earlier, lived - the prototype of the central character of the plot-themed painting, who literally "asked for the canvas" and whose image was drawn by the author's imagination ^{[10, pp. 288-293]}. V.A. Igoshev spent more than a week in Tasmanov's yurt, painting, in addition to the sketch (which served as the basis for the future painting "Mansi the Hunter"), portraits of Osip Petrovich's wife and two of his granddaughters. The latter can also be found among other characters in the monumental painting "The Song of the Old Mansi" ^{[10, p. 292]}. It is worth adding that many of the collected portrait sketches later became independent works that decorated the gallery of the master's images: "Naughty Girl", "Dreaming", "Old Mansi", "Mother", "Little Hunter", etc.

In June of the same 1956, a significant event in the work of V.A. Igoshev took place – the opening of the first solo exhibition in Moscow, which was highly appreciated by the public and the press ^{[2, p. 23]}. So, one of the authors of the newspaper "Soviet Culture" – V. Alekseeva wrote: "The merit of the artist, first of all, is that he was not tempted by the easy way of an external narrative about the little-known life of the far northerners. Mansi's life captured Igoshev and became the main theme of his work" ^[12]. After the exhibition, ten of the artist's works were purchased by the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR for the collections of the country's museums ^{[2, p. 23]}. Thanks to a preserved letter to V.I. Volodin, we learn that for the artist, a creative business trip in the spring of 1956 (along with a later trip to the Pamirs) was one of the most "interesting and fruitful" [see note 8].

At the end of 1956, V.A. Igoshev, as already noted, was busy working on the canvas "Song of the Old Mansi" (Fig. 1). After clarifying many fragments of the composition concerning the location of the figures, he again left for the North in order to "verify the images of the heroes of the future painting, to notice new features in their characters" ^{[2, pp. 24-25]}. One of the painted sketches, "Portrait of P. Kurikov", significantly supplemented the original version of the composition, introduced another figurative line into the overall narrative. It was only at the beginning of the following 1957, working in his Sverdlovsk workshop, that he finally managed to finish the work. For the "Song of the Old Mansi", the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR awarded the artist with a diploma of the first degree ^{[2, p. 26]}.

Fig. 1. V.A. Igoshev. The song of the old mansi. 1956–1957. X, m. 170x230.

The photo fund of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region.

Source: GASO. Fotofond. F-1. Op. 12. Ed. hr. 13423

Among other works, mainly of the portrait genre, should be called "Portrait of W. Sambindalova", "The portrait of the hunter P. Nomin", "The girl mansi from Suevat", "Portrait of M.K. Nomina", etc. All the listed canvases from 1956-1957 (including sketches for the story-themed painting "The Song of the Old Mansi", individual portraits) participated in the Exhibition of Sverdlovsk artists [see note. 9] and an exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution (September–October 1957) [see note 10].

Even during the opening of the All–Union Art Exhibition (November 1957 - March 1958), which exhibited the northern works of V.A. Igoshev [see note 11], in late February – early March 1958, he again went to the village of Nyaksimvol to search for artistic material for the thematic painting "On a festive Day". The artist returned to this work, conceived during his first trip in March 1954, several times. It was preceded by a sketch made under the impression of a scene seen in the camp of Stepan Kurikov with a characteristic explanatory inscription by the author: "For fun, Mansi girls ride on sleds, clinging to a gas truck, and Mansi girls are also in the gas truck" ^{[4, p. 20]}. At the beginning of 1958, he managed to draw up the final sketch of the composition and continue searching for suitable types in the northern villages and camps. However, the weather conditions of the harsh region often made it difficult to advance the desired work. So, in March, V.A. Igoshev from Nyaksimvol goes to Nerokhi in order to collect full-scale material. On the way, it was often necessary to make forced stops, one of which the artist reproduced in his landscape-genre painting "Rest on the Way" (1958). Already at the place of arrival, all creative plans for writing sketches were upset by strong wind, blizzard and frost ^{[2, p. 30]}. Nevertheless, in November of the same year, V.A. Igoshev presented cardboard "On a festive day" at a meeting of the Exhibition Committee for the upcoming exhibition "Soviet Russia" [see note 12]. And in 1959, after another trip and writing the missing sketches (among them – "The Young Hunter Vasya Kurikov", 1959), work on the painting was completed. According to art critics, the thematic composition "On a Festive Day", which is in a major key, was dedicated to "the friendship of the Russian and Mansi peoples" ^{[9, pp. 12-13]}.

Among the works of V.A. Igoshev, brought by him in the spring of 1958, which amazed art critics and colleagues with their "honed and free skill" ^{[4, p. 18]}, it is necessary to note "compositional" and etude portraits ("Portrait of the reindeer herder V.P. Khatanzeev", "The Girl Mansi", "The Girl with the letter", "Delegate", "Little artist", "Reindeer herder Yakov (?) Rochev", "Portrait of the collective farmer Mansi", "Portrait of the hunter B. Sambindalov", "Morning"), as well as genre paintings ("Before the start of the session. (Portrait of the projectionist A. Sambindalov)", "An interesting book" (sketch), "Grandmother and granddaughters", "Packing on the road"), in which an organic synthesis of portrait and everyday genre can be traced. If we talk about the works of 1959, then in addition to the already mentioned "Young Hunter Vasi Kurikov", chamber portraits of hunter N.S. Anemgurov and reindeer herder Vasily Rochev, as well as the genre two-figure composition "An Interesting Book" are of interest.

Until 1961, V.A. Igoshev had to suspend his creative business trips to the North. This fact is due, in particular, to other trips of the master to foreign countries: Romania, Turkey, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, the United Arab Republic – 1959; the Mongolian People's Republic – 1960. Nevertheless, during these years, the works of the "northern cycle" were actively exhibited: at the All-Union exhibition "40 Years of the Komsomol" (1958) [see note 13], Sverdlovsk Regional Exhibition (1959) [see note 14].

As part of the opening of the republican exhibition "Soviet Russia" (April 15 – July 17, 1960), the artist took part in the television program "Evening News", where he spoke about his exhibited works ^{[13, p. 12]}. Among them, it is worth noting the already familiar "On a festive day", "The Girl Mansi", "The Young Hunter Vasya Kurikov", "Portrait of the reindeer herder V.P. Khatanzeev", "The Girl with the Letter", etc., previously selected by the Exhibition Committee [see note 15]. Critics noted the restraint and concentration of V.A. Igoshev's artistic language, the warm tonality of his paintings ^{[14, p. 16]}.

The traveling solo exhibition of V.A. Igoshev's works in the art museums of the RSFSR (1958-1959) is another significant event in the creative fate of the master. More than 150 graphic and pictorial works created since 1954 have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Tyumen [see note. 16], Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Leningrad ("State Russian Museum"). A significant and most artistically valuable part was made up of the creations of the "northern cycle" ^[9].

The resumption of V.A. Igoshev's creative business trips to the North, after an almost two-year break, was associated (if you believe the artist's memoirs) with work on a thematic painting "In the club of a distant village. (Before the concert starts)". The sketch of the latter was created during 1960 (collection of the Chuvash State Art Museum). It should be noted that at the stage of preparation of the work, namely from 1960 to 1964, there are other titles – "In the Mansi club", "Before the performance" [see note 17].

In February 1961, the artist made a trip to the national collective farm settlements and camps of the Surgut district. Surgut, according to the memoirs of V.A. Igoshev, "in those years was a run-down village in the far North" ^{[10, p. 293]}. And since Surgut could only be reached by plane, the artist stopped briefly in Khanty-Mansiysk, where he had a meeting with participants of the art studio of the District House of Folk Art. In a friendly conversation that lasted several hours, the artist made an analysis of the works of amateur craftsmen: "The artist warmly responded to the paintings of the teacher of the national pedagogical college M. Bronnikov, drawings of the pensioner, participant of the Patriotic War L. Grudnitskaya and the employee of the cinema T. Chemakin" ^[15]. V.A. Igoshev promised to "take patronage" over the studio and "provide she needs constant help," and upon returning from a business trip to the district center, she wrote a number of sketches with the "sponsored" ones ^[16]. At parting, he "presented the team with two albums of reproductions of his paintings," on one of which he made a donation inscription as follows: "To my dear comrades on a thorny creative path – amateur artists of Khanty-Mansiysk" ^[16].

According to the author of the above–quoted notes, journalist B. Gusev, the Soviet artist went on a business trip to the villages and camps of the Surgut district in order to create "sketches for a large canvas about the Northerners – the heroes of the seven-year-old" ^[16]. However, according to the memoirs of V.A. Igoshev himself, he wanted to write "a new picture, the plot of which was determined even earlier: "In the club of a distant village." That's why I came to collect sketching material for her" ^{[10, p. 294]}. Despite the absence of any mention of the "heroes of the seven-year-old" in the biographical novels of the painter, or archives, catalogs, scientific articles and monographs, nevertheless, individual portrait works have been preserved, differing in a certain thematic focus: "Young collective farmer of Khanty", "Collective farmer of Khanty", "Young collective farmer of Khanty", "Animal scientist", "Hunt from Ust-Nazim", "Portrait of the fisherman P. Moldanov" (all – 1961). There is reason to assume that the "painting about the heroes of the seven-year-old" could postpone for some time the work on the work "In the club of a distant village" in the same way as it was earlier with the thematic composition "On a festive day", postponed due to another, more popular for republican exhibitions, "The Song of Old Mansi". Moreover, in addition to the mentioned portraits, as well as some summer sketches of 1962 (which we will talk about later), the idea of the "heroes of the seven-year-old" did not receive further development and was replaced by other creative "projects" ("Baikal" and "Pamir" cycles), whereas above the canvas "In the club of a distant village" the artist worked hard in preparation for the exhibition "Ural Socialist" (1964). This is confirmed by the minutes of the Board meetings of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists on the allocation of creative aids to V.A. Igoshev for the completion of the painting [see note 17].

V.A. Igoshev got from Khanty-Mansiysk to Surgut on an AN-2 plane and, without stopping for a long time, went by the same plane to Trom-Agan, since he knew that "reindeer herders and hunters of the Khanty live there" ^{[10, p. 293]}. Thanks to the artist's letter addressed to the director of the Kalinin (now Tver) Art Gallery N.F. Sudakova (dated June 10, 1976), we learn that he spent two weeks in Trom-Agan, where he collected sketch material for the painting "In the club of a distant village": "Working on a large sketch of an old reindeer herder, I also wrote his granddaughter, a smart, black-eyed, but sometimes serious little girl beyond her age" [see note 18]. The Portrait of the Khanty Girl is still kept in the collections of the Tver Regional Art Gallery.

From Trom-Agan, V.A. Igoshev "went to the plague", having previously agreed with the reindeer herders heading there. So, in the "Northern Novels" he shares with the reader a characteristic case that sheds light on the creative everyday life of the master: "In our artistic practice, it often happens that when collecting material for one painting, you suddenly find a completely new theme or a new plot" ^{[10, p. 294]}. Twenty years later, he transferred the touching picture of the "unique fusion of man and nature" seen at the camp – a boy hugging a deer and whispering something to him - to the canvas, giving the poetic name "Whisper of the Tundra" ^{[10, p. 296]}.

In addition to the already mentioned portraits of 1961, presumably related to the conceived "painting about the heroes of the seven-year-old", the genre-landscape composition "Khanty camp" (Museum of Nature and Man), probably made during one of these "trips to the plague", has been preserved.

Thanks to a letter from V.A. Igoshev to V.I. Voldin dated April 9, 1961, it turned out that the collected sketch material was used, in particular, when working on another painting: "So I got home in complete well-being. It worked well. And until my impressions are divorced, I'm painting a picture "On pastures", I think I'll be in time for the All-Union one" [see note 19]. The work "On Distant Pastures" was exhibited at the Exhibition of Portraits of Agricultural Workers (1961), and a little later it was transferred to the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Turkmen SSR (now the Museum of Fine Arts of Turkmenistan).

The following year, 1962, was full of creative business trips and travels for the artist. In the interval between a trip to Lake Baikal in early spring, which lasted about a month, and a stay on a tourist ticket in Yugoslavia (late August), the artist's next creative business trip to the North (June-August 1962) fit in. V.A. Igoshev wrote about all this in detail in his letter to V.I. Volodin: "After the exhibition of my works in the USSR Union of Artists "For foreign Countries" I worked a lot and hard. In early spring, he spent more than a month on Lake Baikal, where he painted portraits and landscape sketches. I was in the north for 2 and a half months in the summer. I sailed on Tobol, Irtysh and Ob. He lived among the fishermen of Nazim for a long time, painted portraits of fishermen and collected material for the painting “Before the concert.” Then I was in my native places in the village, and in August I went to Yugoslavia on a tourist voucher, where, despite almost daily travel, I also managed to work" [see note 20]. In the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the Board of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR, there is a corresponding wording on the allocation of "creative assistance to the artist for a trip on a steamer along the Irtysh River for 3 months" [see note 21]. Also, the writer A. Govyadov in his article about the works of the "Baikal cycle" V.A. Igoshev mentioned that the latter, after his return from Lake Baikal, did not "stay too long in Sverdlovsk", but went on a "long voyage along the Irtysh and Ob" ^[17].

V.A. Igoshev captured his stay in the Ust-Nazym fishermen's camp in the plein-air sketch "The Khanty Fishermen's Camp. Ust-Nazym" (Museum of Nature and Man, 1962) (Fig. 2). Another landscape sketch of the master testifies to his stay in the district capital – "On the outskirts of Khanty-Mansiysk" (Museum of Nature and Man, 1962). The gallery of images of the artist's "northern cycle" was supplemented by such chamber portraits as "The Young Fisherman of Khanty", "The Young Fisherman", "Portrait of the fisherman Sagandukov", "Portrait of a Khanty woman" (all – 1962). Some of the portraits ("The Young Fisherman-Hunt") can be found in the publication of the Mansi poet Yuvan Shestalov "The Blue Wind of Kaslania", where V.A. Igoshev worked as a book illustrator [see note 22]. As we have already said, these works were probably planned to be used when creating a thematic canvas about the "heroes of the seven-year-old", but in the end it was never started for a number of many reasons.

Fig. 2. V.A. Igoshev.  The Khanty fishermen's camp. Ust-Nazim. 1962.

K., M. 50x69. The Museum of Nature and Man.

Source: State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation.

URL: https://goskatalog.ru/portal/#/collections?id=9284208

Many paintings by V.A. Igoshev, created by him thanks to creative business trips to the North in 1961-1962, were exhibited at the Zonal thematic exhibition "Ural Socialist" (1964) [see note. 23], the Second Republican exhibition "Soviet Russia" (February 6 – April 11, 1965) [see note 24]. About the thematic composition "At the edge of the earth. The Northern Lights" (1962-1964) (Fig. 3), presented at the exhibition "Ural Socialist", the artist and teacher K.M. Maksimov wrote that "it did not become a discovery", since the transfer of the poetic state of the painting, "cold, fantastic light" was beyond the author's strength: "The people depicted in they are somewhat contemplative and picturesquely not "soldered" into the coloristic environment, not imbued with that extraordinary state that is contained in nature" ^{[18, p. 38]}.

Fig. 3. V.A. Igoshev. At the edge of the earth. (Northern Lights). 1962-1964.

X, m. 260x302. National Gallery of the Komi Republic.

Source: State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation.

URL: https://goskatalog.ru/portal/#/collections?id=7405773

K.M. Maksimov's fair remarks reveal the weaknesses of V.A. Igoshev's thematic paintings of the 1950s - the first half of the 1960s, especially noticeable against the background of his own creative successes, but mainly of the portrait genre. On the one hand, the logic of the exhibition paintings, ideological and opportunistic in nature, requires the authors to "show" the "invasion of a new socialist way of life into the lives of previously oppressed peoples" ^{[19, p. 15]}, with its superficial heroization and deliberate romanticism, and on the other – the logic of a deep understanding of nature with the help of, in fact, artistic tasks involving figurative and plastic searches and accomplishments. During this period of V.A. Igoshev's work, there is often a mixture of two different approaches to the chosen northern theme.

A kind of "intermediate result" was the opening of personal exhibitions of the artist in 1964 in Sverdlovsk (Sverdlovsk Art Gallery), Moscow (Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists) and Leningrad (State Russian Museum), where, of course, the works of the "northern cycle" were also shown. Numerous literature is devoted to this event [see note 25]. Let us note here the judgments of the famous art critic M.V. Alpatov, who wrote that "the exhibition of the young Sverdlovsk artist makes a pleasant impression. The best qualities of the Uralian are especially clear in the sketches from nature. A sharp eye, clear shape, sensitivity to color are noticeable" ^{[20, p. 24]}.

 A new stage in the artistic comprehension of the North will be 1969, associated with the resumption of business trips to the Khanty-Mansiysk National District and marking, at the same time, the beginning of the Moscow period of V.A. Igoshev's creativity (1968-2007).

Thus, we come to the following conclusion. If you believe the words of V.A. Igoshev from the already quoted letter to V.I. Volodin [see note. 20], then he was in the North 11 times. From the first, as the artist himself put it, "reconnaissance trip", when the emphasis was on the "ethnographic", largely descriptive side of a previously unfamiliar culture, to a creative trip in the summer of 1962, we can state the gradual process of the master's immersion in the realities of life in the North by solving more artistic than ideological tasks related to Soviet modernization. However, along with the search for the originality of a unique nature, elements alien to it were also mixed, due to the logic of exhibition paintings of the 1950s and 1960s, with its outdated "vocabulary" and stilted plots. In the future, the question of the content and aesthetic saturation of the chosen northern themes was solved in a different worldview paradigm ("return to the lost"), which set a new vector in V.A. Igoshev's creative business trips of the 1970s and 1990s.

Notes:

1. The work of V.A. Igoshev "On vacation" together with individual sketches following the results of the exhibition of artists of the RSFSR in 1954 was awarded a diploma of the first degree. (Order of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR No. 178. Moscow. March 24, 1955 On the results of the art exhibition of the RSFSR in 1954).

2. "Old Woman Mansi", "Camp Suevatpaul", "Young driver", "Kurikov", "Girl Mansi", "On vacation" (sketch) – all 1954. See Sverdlovsk Art Exhibition 1954 Catalog. – Sverdlovsk: Sverdlovsk branch of the USSR Art Fund, 1954. – 18 p.

3. "On vacation", "Old Mansi", "Old Mansi with a bag", "Girl Mansi", "Toycha", "Young driver", "Old Mansi with a muskrat skin", "In the cradle" – all 1954. See the exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR 1954. Painting, sculpture, graphics, varnishes. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1954. – 78 p.

4. "In the cradle", "Old Mansi with a bag" – all 1954. See the All-Union Art Exhibition. Painting, sculpture, graphics, poster, decorative painting. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1955. – 295 p.

5. "To the camp", "To the native camp", "Portrait of the reindeer herder V.P. Khatanzeev, "Portrait of the collective farmer Mansi", "Evening at the camp", "Girl Mansi", "Winter", "Shepherds", "Happy hunting" – all 1955. See Exhibition of works by artists The RSFSR of 1955. Painting, sculpture, graphics, applied art. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1955. – 138 p.

6. "At the camp", "Portrait of the reindeer herder V.P. Khatanzeev, "Portrait of the collective farmer Mansi", "Evening at the camp", "Girl Mansi", "Winter" – all 1955. See the Traveling exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR 1955. Painting. Graphics. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1956. – 15 p.

7. See the exhibition of paintings, sculptures, graphics for the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1957.

8. Letters and inscription of Igoshev to V.A. V.I. Volodin. RGALI. F. 3328. Op. 1. D. 56. L. 7-8.

9. "The Song of Old Mansi" (1956-1957), "Old Mansi" (1957), "The Woman of Mansi" (1957), "Portrait of the reindeer herder P. Kurikov" (1957), "The Girl of Mansi" (1956), "The Collective farmer Mansi" (1956), "Little Mansi" (1956), "A team on vacation" (1956), "I was thinking" (1956), etc. See the exhibition of works by Sverdlovsk artists in 1957. Painting, sculpture, graphics, applied art. Catalog. – Sverdlovsk: Sverdlovsk Book Publishing House, 1957. – 48 p.

10. "The Song of Old Mansi" (1956-1957), "The Girl of Mansi" (1956), "Old Mansi" (1957), "Portrait of the reindeer herder P. Kurikov" (1957). See The exhibition of works by artists of the RSFSR 1957 To the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1957. – 74 p.

11. "Old Mansi" (1956), "Song of Old Mansi" (1956-1957), "Portrait of the reindeer herder P. Kurikov" (1957). See the All-Union Art exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Painting. Sculpture. Graphics. Catalog. – Moscow: Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1957. – 555 p.).

12. Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Materials (minutes of the exhibition committee, biographical data of artists, etc.) on the preparation of exhibitions. GASO. F.r-2022. Op. 1. d. 44a. l. 118.

13. "The girl with the letter", "Before the start of the session. (Portrait of projectionist A. Sambindalov)" – all 1958. See the All-Union art exhibition "40 years of the Komsomol". Painting. Sculpture. Graphics. Monumental and decorative art. Applied art. Catalog. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1958. – 379 p.

14. "On a Festive Day" (1958-1959), "Portrait of the reindeer herder V.P. Khatanzeev" (1958), "Portrait of the reindeer herder V. Rochev" (1959), "Portrait of the Mansi poet Yuvan Shestalov" (1959), "An interesting book", "Young hunter Vasya Kurikov" (1959). See Sverdlovsk Regional Art Exhibition in 1959. Catalog. – Sverdlovsk: Sverdlovsk Book Publishing House, 1960. – 38 p.

15. Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Materials (minutes of the exhibition committee, biographical data of artists, etc.) on the preparation of exhibitions. GASO. F.r-2022. Op. 1. d. 44a. L. 20, 64, 106, 110, 112.

16. List of works by the artist V.A. Igoshev for the catalog of a personal exhibition in Tyumen. (Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Lists of works by Sverdlovsk artists for various exhibitions. GASO. F. r-2022. Op. 1. d. 44. l. 37-39).

17. Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. Minutes of the board meetings of the department for 1964. GASO. F.2022r. Op. 1. D. 96. L. 21, 95.

18. GBUK Tver Regional Art Gallery. Letter from V.A. Igoshev to N.F. Sudakova – vh. No. 81/5 dated 06/10/1976.

19. Letters and inscription of Igoshev to V.A. V.I. Volodin. RGALI. F. 3328. Op. 1. D. 56. L. 3.

20. Letters and inscription of Igoshev to V. A. V.I. Volodin. RGALI. F. 3328. Op. 1. D. 56. L. 4-5.

21. Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Minutes of Board meetings. GASO. F.r-2022. Op. 1. d. 79. L. 144.

22. Shestalov Yu.N. The blue wind of kaslania. Sverdlovsk: Sredne-Uralsky Book Publishing House, 1964. – 203 p.

23. "At the edge of the earth. (Northern Lights)" (1962-1963), "In the club of a distant village. (Before the concert)" (1961-1964), "The Young Fisherman of Khanty" (1962), "Portrait of the Khanty collective farmer" (1962). See the Zonal thematic art exhibition "Ural Socialist". Catalog. – Sverdlovsk: Ural, 1964. – 41 p.

24. "Severyanochka" (1962), "The Young fisherman of Khanty" (1962), "Portrait of the collective farmer Khanty" (1962), "Portrait of the fisherman Sagandukov" (1962), "In the club of a distant village. (Before the concert)" (1961-1964). See the Second Republican Art Exhibition "Soviet Russia": February 6 – April 11, 1965. Painting. Sculpture. Graphics. Monumental and decorative art. Theatrical and decorative art. Catalog. The second revised and expanded edition. – Moscow: Soviet Artist, 1966. – 151 p.

25. Exhibition of works by Honored Artist of the RSFSR Vladimir Alexandrovich Igoshev. The booklet. Sverdlovsk: Uralsky Rabochy, 1964. [B. S.]; Golovanov N.N. Vladimir Alexandrovich Igoshev. Exhibition catalog. Painting. M.: [B. I.], 1964. 16 p.; Pavlovsky B. The beauty of a man of creative labor // Ural worker. June 17, 1964.; Strykovskaya T. The joy of life // Ural worker. February 7, 1965; Singer of the North // For industrial personnel. May 23, 1964. No. 39; Milchakov V. The main thing is man // For industrial personnel. June 3, 1964. No. 42.; Sokolnikov M. Painting by Vladimir Igoshev // Art. 1965, No. 4. pp. 33-37.